Thursday, April 23, 2009

Speech and Language Evaluation--Calling all Been There/Done That Mommas! I have a question for you!

Ok, so we just got Christian's narrative report back from him his school. We're very pleased with his scores:

PLS-4 Total Language Score is 110, functioning in the 75th percentile rank. Age equivalent of 2 years, 6 months
Expressive One-Word Vocab Test-Raw Score is 24, Standard is 101, 53rd Percentile Rank, Age equivalent of 2 years, 2 months
Receptive One-Word Vocab Test-Raw Score is 24, Standard is 101, 53rd Percentile Rank, Age equivalent of 2 years, 2 months
Goldman Fristoe Test of Articulation-Raw Score is 41, Standard is 100, 60th Percentile Rank, Age Equivalent of 2 years, 4 months

And I quote from the Speech and Language Diagnosis:

"Christian presents a severe bilateral sensorineural hearing loss. At the present time, his speech and language skills were found to be within normal limits".

I knew that, but I love to see it in writing. I love knowing that in all of these tests, my Deaf kid is STILL testing at and above age level.

His Expressive and Receptive One Word Vocab Test scores worry me. I know our big challenge areas use of objects, pronouns, and sometimes negation. Our BIG challenge is the repetition of "Wh" questions.

So, for all of you amazing Moms out there who have been through this, help me figure out how to help him with these areas. What do you do at home? The SLPs at his school are going to give me homework, but I know from experience that there are some pretty innovative readers of my blog, and I want to tap into my resources here :)

3 comments:

Val said...

I would just casually ask him "where does the toy go? does it go here (walk over to the kitchen counter and shake your head no) does it go here (walk to the fridge and tell him no)" act as if you don't know WHERE it goes repeating that word and then say "oh, it goes in the toy box" and put it there. Do the same w/who, "who is that?" when you show him pictures of family, give him his own little photo albumn he can put in his room and ask him "who" they are before nap or bed....just a couple of example for wh-by the way, why isn't til age 4 or so, so don't worry about why!
Go boy go, those are some nice scores!!!

leah said...

I'm interested in the answers, too. Our SLP was working with Nolan the other day and hid a toy in her hand. She asked him "which hand?" and he had no idea what she was asking. He stood there with a blank look on his face. We've been playing the "which hand" game for a while now (with Yogos) and after five weeks he finally gets that he's supposed to pick one hand or the other. He's still pretty young, though!

Dorie said...

First of all, Christian has made AMAZING progress in such a short time! Definitely celebrate those amazing scores, and know that, in time, the receptive and expressive scores will come up. In the meantime (because I'm a mom who has to do something at home, too!), just try to think of situations in which things you want to work on occur naturally, and make them happen more frequently, so he gets lots of exposure and opportunities to practice. If it's negation, for example, instead of asking him if he wants more cereal, point out to him that he has no more cereal. If he answers a question with "no," you can say back to him, "You don't want___." The best way to teach "which one" is by giving him lots of choices. If he doesn't understand what you're asking, show him by extending first one hand, and then the other (if you have the choices in your hands), and look at him questioningly as you ask him which one he wants. Once he understands the question, you won't have to give him the visual cue. Anyway, I'm sure you're doing many of these things already, but you could maybe just think about them more deliberately and plan a little so you can focus on a couple of things each day. You're doing a great job!